Expression Through Music
by n-e-o-nT O A S T E R md
Summary: Sometimes words aren't enough, and you have no other choice but to express yourself through music. Abigail just moved from Salem, MA and is now attending Spencer Academy. What will happen now that her world is turned upside down?
1. This Could Be the Start of Something Big

It was the last day of finals at my school, and I was so ready to get out of there. I was sitting at my desk, feet up on it and kind of just relaxing. I had already finished the test within the first hour of the class period, and now all that was left to do was wait for the clock to strike twelve. I was thirty seconds away from being free! Well, not quite free, but two weeks winter vacation was better than nothing. Twenty seconds left, I grabbed my bag that I carried with me to each class, getting ready to leave. Ten seconds, I looked around the class, some people were now scrambling to finish the essay that we were forced to write. Five, four, three, two…DONE! I got up out of my seat and raced out of that class room faster than the speed of light, ready to knock people over if I had to. Bursting out of the front door to the school, I ran to my lovely little Dodge Neon eager to escape school grounds.

I stuck my keys into the ignition and tried to get the engine to come to life. At first it wasn't working, even my pleas of 'come on baby, don't do this to me on the last day' weren't helping. Then out of nowhere she roared to life. I whooped and drove out of the parking lot so fast; you'd think the devil was chasing after me. As usual, I was the first one off of school grounds. My house wasn't far away, so it took me about two minutes to get home (especially since I was speeding the entire way back). I pulled into the drive way, shut off the engine, and burst out of that car. When I walked through the front door, however, I wasn't greeted by the usual attack of my loving husky, Proteus –named after the lesser known Greek god of the sea-, but instead by a box of what I later found out were clothes toppling on me.

"Mom!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, still buried in the pile of clothes. In a flash of red hair, that I had no idea how I hadn't inherited, my mother appeared at the bottom of our stair case.

"Oh honey," she said helping me out of the cage of clothes, "I'm sorry, I should have told you sooner." Now I was scared. What hadn't she told me earlier? Why were boxes full of clothes, and who knows what else, piled up all around my house? Where had all our furniture gone?

"Mom," I said, getting up out of the clothes, "What are you talking about?" I asked starting to put the clothes back into the box they fell out of. She looked around trying to avoid my gaze. "Mom, whatever it is I'll probably find out soon enough." I said glaring at her.

"True…" She said to herself. "Honey, we're moving…" This took a few minutes to sink in.

"WHAT!?!" I shouted at her, completely furious. "Why didn't you tell me? Does my school know? When are we leaving? Where are we moving to?" I said, having even more questions circling in my mind.

"Calm down," she said sitting me down on the steps. "We're moving tomorrow…" she started, but I jumped up, and started panicking.

"Tomorrow! How do you expect me to even be close to ready to move tomorrow!?!" I said

"Honey, sit down," she said sitting me back down on the steps. "I've already done most of the packing, you just haven't noticed because you've been stressed over finals." At first I didn't believe her, but then when I started to think about it, everything slowly had been disappearing. "And to answer everything else, I didn't find out until last week, and I didn't want you to panic, yes your school knows, and we're moving to Ipswich."

~Tomorrow~

The car ride from Salem, MA all the way to Ipswich was long and boring. It was an hour and a half of me listening to my music, following my mom in my Dodge Neon as she drove up ahead with the trailer full of our stuff attached to the end of our hideous minivan. We got to our new house and started unloading when my mom decided to tell me that I wouldn't be living with her during the school year. Instead, I would be attending Spencer Academy. After that, I stayed up in my room the whole day screaming into my pillow.

I woke up the next day tired, but knowing that I had an entire day's worth of moving to do. My mom helped me get a few chosen belongings in boxes and load them into the back seat of my car. The drive to Spencer Academy was about a half an hour, so since I left at about 11:30 I got there right around noon. After going to the main office, getting my room number and key, my schedule, and finding out that I wouldn't have a roommate, I went back to my car, grabbed my suitcase full of clothes, my Yuki and Aki purse my dad got me from Japan, and one of the lighter boxes of books, and headed to the dorms.

I was about half way there, when all of a sudden a guy with a black knit hat bumped into me. I fell into the snow, my favorite newsboy cap fell off into the snow about a yard away from me, and my box of books fell out of my arms. "Gee, thanks…" I said loud enough for him to hear. He turned around and saw me sitting in the snow.

"Oh," he said. "Sorry…" Then he just walked away. 'Oh no he just didn't!' I thought. Quickly I got up and started following him.

"Hey! Hey you! Come back here!" I shouted after him. He turned around and looked at me with a look that said 'oh my gosh this girl is insane'. Finally I caught up to him. "You…" I said, pausing to catch my breath. "You're not getting away that easily." He just smirked at me.

"Get away with what?" He said still smirking. I glared at him.

"You know what, you just knocked me down; now you're going to help me unpack, then buy me lunch."I said with my arms crossed and an even bigger smirk on my face than the one on his.

"When did I agree to this?" he asked me, now looking thoroughly upset.

"You agreed to this the second you knocked me down and didn't even offer to help." I said poking him in the chest each time I said the word 'you'.

"Alright, alright but no lunch." He said. I smirked; I always get my way one way or another. I turned around and motioned for him to follow me. I knew he was walking right behind me because I could hear his footsteps in the snow. We finally got back to where he knocked me over, I grabbed my hat, and he picked up the box and grabbed the suitcase. It was going okay until someone called out to the guy.

"Hey, look who's whipped! I never thought I'd see the day when Reid Garwin helped some chick carry her books."

"Shut the hell up Abbot!" The boy, who was apparently named Reid, shouted at him. I rolled my eyes at the both of them, and just kept walking to the dorm. Reid was still trailing right behind me, but now he was fuming. We made it to my dorm without any further interruptions. I told Reid just to set the things down on the bed since we had three more boxes to go grab. The way to my car was terribly awkward and quiet.

"So, your name is Reid…" I said, trying to start up a conversation.

"Yeah," was all he said in response.

"Mine's Abigail, Abigail Williams." I said, still no response. "I'm related to the Abigail Williams who helped start the witch hunt in Salem. I know it's not exactly something to brag about, but I think that it's interesting how one girl caused so much chaos" Now he was staring at me. I glanced back at him. "Some people say that Abigail was actually practicing witchcraft herself, and that the whole reason she started accusing people was so she would get caught…" I said. Still he didn't say anything, but now he was completely focused on me. "Here's my car" I said, pointing to the lime green little car that I drove practically everywhere.

I unlocked the back door and opened it up to let him grab a few boxes, but he pulled something out from the backseat that I never let anyone touch.

"Ah, no, you're definitely not allowed to carry that one in." I said, grabbing the big black bad and swinging it over my shoulder.

"Little bit protective of your guitar aren't you?" He said. I just glared at him.

"It's my baby. No one, and I mean no one, is allowed to touch it. My dad got it for me when I turned thirteen." I said, clutching the strap of the case with such ferocity, I was surprised that I didn't accidentally tear it in half. This was probably the only good thing that happened to me that day.

"I guess I sort of get where you're coming from…" He said adding another box to his arms. He moved out of my way, and I grabbed the last box in my car.

"Well, this is it. We can go back to my room." I said closing the door with my foot, and quickly locking it. The walk back was uneventful, and after he set the boxes down, he just left. I'm not sure if it was the fact that he just hated me, or if he just wanted to get out of there as fast as he could. I just sat down on my bed and sighed. "Reid," I whispered to myself as I laid my head down on the bed. Gently I closed my eyes as I drifted off to sleep.


	2. I Wanna Go Out Tonight

I woke up about a half hour later to the annoying sound of tapping on my door. Assuming that it was knocking, I got up and swung open the door to find two unusually happy, and completely unfamiliar, faces staring at me with my ruffled bed hair, and wrinkled clothes. I blinked a few times, trying to get my eyes to focus on the two of them, but something was screwing up my vision. I'm not quite sure if it was the annoying shine off their teeth, or maybe the unnatural glow of their hair, or maybe a combination of the both. Whatever it was, it made me completely unable to look at either of them without shielding my eyes. "Let me guess." I said, drowsiness dripping from every syllable. "You two must be the welcoming committee." I said, with extreme sarcasm and annoyance. They just smiled even bigger and nodded. Finally, the one on the left spoke up.

"I'm Brigid, and this is Victorya." She said motioning from herself to the brunet standing next to her.

"Spelled with a 'y'" the brunet piped in. My mouth hung open a little bit as I tried to figure out any plausible way to spell Victoria with a 'y', and I was on the brink of asking the girl, when I decided that it really didn't matter all that much to me, and I didn't exactly want to hear her high-pitched voice again.

"So…" I said looking back and forth between them trying to remember one of their names, and then finally just deciding 'to hell with it'! "You," I said pointing at the one who had spoken first.

"Brigid," She said still smiling.

"Yeah, whatever. You, why are you here?" I asked hoping that the answer would be short and to the point.

"Well," The one that I didn't want to talk started, "we're here to inform you about the upcoming events here at Spencer Academy." She said. 'Didn't I ask the other one?' I thought to myself, but I didn't have the chance to answer it because the other one started talking.

"The Sunday after Christmas, December 30th, we're having the Winter Formal. The tickets are on sale now, that is if you want to go." She said, I mentally loaded my mind gun, prepared to mentally shoot her if that was the only reason she woke me up. "Also, the winter and spring sports try outs are this coming week. There's basketball, dance team, swim/dive team, baseball, and soccer tryouts on Thursday." She started. 'Wow,' I thought 'there's a lot going on in just one day at this school…'

"Friday," the brunet started, but I had already heard all I needed.

"That's alright, I'm not going to be here Friday, and so you really don't need to tell me anything else." I said trying to close the door.

"But wait!" One of them said, sticking their hand in the way of the door.

"That's not a good idea" I said just about ready to slam the door on that chick's fingers.

"But-" she started, but I cut her off.

"Move your fingers or I will break them with this door…" I said, probably looking very close to insane. The girl gave me a terrified look and withdrew her hands from the door. Quickly I shut the door and sat down on the bed. 'I should probably get unpacked' I thought to myself, slowly getting up.

I first set up my foldable circle chair right next to the door. "Just like home…" I whispered to myself. I opened one of my many boxes and pulled out my bed sheets. Making my bed was easy; not falling asleep on it was a little bit more difficult. Finally, after finishing unpacking almost everything but the books, I decided to go get the lunch that was supposed to be bought for me by that guy that knocked me into the snow. What on earth was his name again… Reece, Reed, REID! That was it, Reid. If I ever saw him again I would SO make him buy me lunch.

I decided that before I left my room, I would try to make myself look at least half decent. Quickly I made my way to the showers, change of clothes and towels in hand. As I entered the room, I set my belongings outside the shower. Quickly I changed out of my clothes and slipped into the shower. It took no more than ten minutes for me to wash, shampoo, and shave, and then leave wrapped snuggly in a towel.

After I had dried myself off thoroughly and pulled my damp hair back into a messy bun, I changed into normal clothes and went back to my dorm. I threw the wet towels I used and the clothes I changed out of in a laundry basket I had set right next to the door. I pulled out the two hair ties that were keeping my annoying black hair off the back of my neck. I plugged my hairdryer into an outlet I found near the sink in what Spencer Academy called a bathroom, and started to dry my hair. Once it was dry, it was sort of straight, but I still felt like it could use some help, so I plugged in my hair straightener.

In the middle of straightening my hair, my right shoulder felt as though it was on fire! I quickly let the straightener drop and grabbed my shoulder. Within moments, I felt the straightener burn two neat lines on the top of my foot. I yelped in pain and kicked the straightener away. After that I decided that my hair would look better back up in a messy bun, so I unplugged the straightener, and pulled my hair back. I checked myself in the mirror to make sure I looked decent, and slipped on some shoes before heading out.

I peeked out my door hoping that the scary twins weren't still out there waiting. As soon as I saw I was in the clear, I dashed out the door. Then I realized I had no idea where I was going. Just down the hallway I saw a girl who looked pretty cool, so I quickly walked over to her.

"Hey," I said "do you know anywhere in town that makes good food?" She turned around with a blank stare on her face.

"Oh, um, yeah. Nicky's usually makes pretty good stuff." She said. I thanked her and went on my way.

I got to my car when I realized I had no idea where Nicky's was. Fortunately, my GPS was still plugged in after giving me directions to Spencer Academy. I tried searching for it, but nothing showed up. Then I decided to look it up online. In Google I typed_ Nicky's_, _Ipswich_, and _Massachusetts. _The only thing that came up was a bar that was about two minutes away from the school. I shrugged, and decided that it must be a mistake, and that the place had changed over the years. My car started up, this time without hesitation. I pulled out of the parking lot, and made my way to Nicky's


	3. I'd Rather Feel Pain Than Nothing

As I pulled into the parking lot for Nicky's I saw that it wasn't too full, but there were some cars there that I recognized. I parked my car, put the GPS away in the glove box, and got out of my car. My shoulder and foot still burned a little, but it was a lot less than the original amount of pain I was in. After locking the doors, I made my way into Nicky's. As I walked through the door, my ears were bombarded with extremely loud music and shouts of laughter and anger. I glanced around, and thought I saw the boy named Reid, but I wasn't sure.

I wandered over to what appeared to be the bar, and I waited for a guy who was a little on the heavy side to come over to my side of the bar. Before he got there, someone came up behind me and whispered something in my ear.

"Hey gorgeous, how's about I buy you some lunch?" I almost had to restrain myself from laughing when I recognized whose voice it was. Smirking, I turned around. As soon as Reid saw my face, he had a look of fear spread slowly across his. "Oh, umm… Abby? Was it?"

"Abigail," I said "and I do believe that you" I said poking his chest "offered to buy me lunch." I saw his friends behind him laughing. "Well," I said crossing my arms in front of my chest, "are you going to buy me lunch or not?" I could tell that he was upset that he was now trapped, but that just made me want to laugh at him even more.

"Well, I guess you've got me trapped then haven't you?" He said, smirking and trying to turn the tables on me with his bad boy charm.

"Yeah, I do." I said, getting closer to him, proving to him that his 'charms' weren't working on me.

"How about we play for it?" He asked, closing the gap in between us even more. I raised an eyebrow.

"Play?" I asked him, wondering what he had in mind. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone hand Reid a pool stick. He put the pool stick in between the two of us and tapped me right between the eyes with it. "Pool? Oh, you're going down pretty boy!" I said, an evil grin spreading across my face.

"If you're so confident, why don't we make the bet a little more interesting?" He asked, now so close our toes were touching.

"Alright, if I win you buy me lunch… And you have to come shopping with me and carry my bags around." I said, putting my hands on my hips.

"And if I win, you're going to buy me some fries since I already had lunch, and…" He was really quiet for a little while, then a smirk spread across his face, and I became worried –but I didn't let him know, heck why should I be scared , I didn't even know what he wanted.- "Feed them to me." I gave him a look that said 'are-you-freaking-kidding-me?' "Without your hands" he added, and his smile spread across his face.

"So… Either way I get food?" I asked tilting my head slightly. He laughed at me.

"I guess you could say that." He said, still smiling.

"Sounds good to me, you're on!" I said, taking the pool stick out of his hand and walking over to the closest open pool table.

"Hey! That's…" He said angrily, but I interrupted him before he could finish.

"Let me guess, your lucky pool stick?" I asked turning around with my free hand on my hip.

"Yeah," he said putting a hand on it, right above where I had a grip on it. "And I'd like it back." I put my other hand directly above his.

"Oh really now?" I asked, and he put his other hand above mine. I was glad he understood what I was attempting. "Why? Are you afraid you'll lose without it…" I said once again topping his hand with my own. "To a girl?" He laughed at this thought, following my motion exactly.

"Nope, I just think would be funnier if I completely kicked your ass instead of just beating you." He said, and I moved up my other hand.

"Why are you so convinced you'll be the one kicking ass?" I asked. He moved his hand up.

" 'Cause I never lose." He said. I moved up my hand. We were fairly close to reaching the top.

"Oh really?" He moved his hand. "Well then today will be a first." I moved my hand.

"Not likely." He moved his hand. I raised an eyebrow and my hand.

"You're a cocky son of a bitch aren't you?" He moved his hand. I moved mine and realized how close we were to the top.

"I have the right to be." He moved his hand. I moved mine. 'Crap, we're…' He placed his hand flat on top of all three of our hands.

"Damn it…" I muttered, and crossed my arms, fake pouting.

"Aw, don't worry honey; I'll go easy on you." Reid said winking at me. 'Oh no he just didn't!' I thought, trying not as pissed as I really was. I walked over to the wall and grabbed a pool stick, then headed back over to the table.

"You break?" I said, motioning to the triangle of pool balls sitting on the table.

"If you insist." He said, still smirking.

"Is your face stuck that way?" I wondered aloud.

"Huh?" His face fell and he looked more confused than my mom when I tried to talk to her about math.

"Obviously not…" I said, looking up at the ceiling. He just shook his head, and the smirk returned. He hit the cue ball, and I felt a burning pain in my shoulder, the same kind of pain that I had felt when I was straightening my hair a while ago. 'What the hell!' My brain screamed as I gripped my shoulder.

"You alright?" Reid asked. I just shook my head, biting my lip, trying not to scream. Why was this happening to me? Why now? I had always had pains in my shoulder, but never this strong before.

"I'll be fine, I just…" I started, but the pain just became stronger. "Frick frick frick frick frick!" I whispered, now doubling over squeezing my shoulder. Then, all of a sudden, the pain just… Went away. I stood back up straight, and looked at the pool table. Reid had knocked in two of the striped balls with one shot. "You are good." I said. He chuckled a bit.

"You freaked me out a little there." He said, getting ready to hit the cue ball a second time. This time, none of the balls went in. 'Huh, I guess that first one had just been a lucky shot…' I thought to myself. I bent down to level myself with the pool table, trying to figure out which ball would be the easiest to hit in. Finally I decided on the six ball, which was only a few inches from being hit into the socket. Right as I was shooting the cue ball, the pain in my shoulder flared up again. I managed to shoot the ball fine and knock the other one into the socket.

"What is going on!" I muttered, grabbing my arm. All of a sudden, one of Reid's friends walked over. He grabbed Reid's shoulder and whispered something that sounded like, 'Outside, now.' I watched as Reid walked away –well, it was more like he was being dragged off by his friend.-

~Reid's POV~

"What the hell Caleb?" I said pulling my arm out of his grasp once we were back behind Nicky's.

"You know what you were doing! You know who she is!" He shouted, glaring at me.

"So what?" I asked, shoving him.

"So, you know what our using does to her!" Caleb said, getting in my face.

"So we have to quit using now because SHE'S here?" I asked, really getting pissed off.

"I'm not saying that exactly, I'm saying that we need to definitely watch how much we use while she's here." He said.

"Whatever, now if you excuse me I've got some fries to win…" I said walking back inside, but when I got there, Abby was gone.


	4. Well, It's Been a Long Day

A/N: He he... So it's been a while huh? -hides behind Reid- PLEASE DON'T MURDER ME! Reid: Please let me go strange person...

~Abigail's POV~

I quickly shut my dorm door behind me and dropped to the floor. My shoulder still tingled slightly with pain. I ran my fingers through my hair and dug my teeth into my bottom lip, almost until it bled. 'What is going on?' My mind screamed at me. I slammed the back of my head against my door and screamed. Obviously someone heard me, because moments later there was a knock on my door. I stood up again, locked the door, and sat down on my bed.

"You're not getting in!" I shouted, picking up my guitar case.

"What if I offered to pay for lunch?" A familiar voice shouted from the opposite side of the door. I had just taken my guitar out of it's case and softly strummed a few chords, which were inaudible anyways because the guitar wasn't hooked up to it's amp, which was sitting in the corner staring at me.

"Well, it depends…" I said, setting down my guitar and making my way over to the door. "Where would we go to eat?" I asked pressing the side of my face against the cold closed door.

"That depends on what you want to eat." Reid said, and I could almost hear that bad boy smile spreading across his face from the way he spoke. I unlocked the door, swung it open and said one word.

"Chinese."

Within a couple minutes of Reid showing up at my dorm room –which, in the back of my mind, I was curious about-, Reid and I were arriving at a small restaurant that definitely looked family owned –not that that was a bad thing-. I was curious as to how such a cool and aloof guy like Reid knew about such a quaint, little, secluded, homey place like this, but I decided not to ask. We had barely taken two or three steps into the restaurant when my question was answered.

"Reid!" A small, slightly chubby, Chinese man shouted, sounding extremely surprised. "What are you doing here? Aren't scheduled to work until next Thursday." He said. Then he saw me, and obviously thought he knew why Reid was there. "Oh, want to impress your lady friend eh?" He said, waddling over to us and elbowing Reid in the side.

"Keji, if I wanted to impress a 'lady friend' this restaurant would be the last place I would bring her. This is my friend Abby." He said, and I glared at him. "Sorry, Abigail" He said, motioning to me.

"Sure." Keji said smirking. He waddled over to me, and whispered in my ear. "A real catch this one! Hard worker, and not too hard on the eyes either!" He told me, and I stifled a giggle. I had a feeling that Reid knew that Keji was talking him up to me, because that bad boy smile –which I had to admit was kind of starting to grow on me- spread across his face as soon as I glanced in his direction.

"You can keep him for now Keji, but I'll be sure to let you know if and when I need him." I said, patting the wrinkly faced man on the shoulder and casting a smile in Reid's general direction.

After that brief and hilarious confrontation with Keji, we were finally seated.

"So," I said, after we told Keji what we wanted to drink, "do you bring all your first dates here, or am I just super lucky?" I asked jokingly. He laughed a little.

"If I brought all my first dates here, I don't think I would ever get a second date." He said glancing towards Keji.

"Don't be mean!" I said, gently punching his shoulder from across the table. "Keji's sweet in his own, slightly obtrusive, creepy way." I told him. Reid raised his eyebrows at me and cocked his head as if he was saying 'really, are you serious?' "What's that look for?" I said grumpily, crossing my arms.

"I think you know exactly what this look is for hun."

"Did… You just call me hun?" I asked raising a questioning eyebrow at him.

"Is this twenty questions or something?" He mumbled obviously slightly embarrassed, "Because if it is I'm leaving." He said, attempting to slide out of the booth we were seated in. I grabbed his wrist as he started to stand up.

"No! Please, I'll stop asking questions, just don't leave. I could use the company." I said, running my thumb over the back of his hand.

"Fine." He grumbled, sitting back down. "But only because you said please." Once again he flashed his bad boy grin. I rolled my eyes, smirking; acting like it still didn't affect me.

Dinner was nice, but I wished it would have lasted longer. Apparently Reid and his friends, who he was hanging out with at Nicky's, were trying out for the swim team –which made me want to try out for the dive team even more for some reason-. They were also all going to Winter Formal as a group plus Caleb and Pouge's dates. At the end of dinner the following conversation happened.

"Hey, I was wondering…" Reid said, fiddling with the few stray vegetables that were left abandoned on his plate with his fork.

"What?" I asked wiping a bit of sauce off my face.

"Well I was wondering… would you want to come with us?" He asked. I felt fairly confused.

"Um, come with who where?" I said wondering how he thought I'd know what he was talking about.

"With me and the gang, you know, to the formal." He said, definitely avoiding my eyesight.

"Like, as your date?" I asked, purposely trying to get in his line of sight.

"Well, not necessarily. I mean, if you want it to be a date, then I guess it can be a date, but if not. I mean, I thought you might like someone to hang out with there, and since you're new and hardly know anyone but me and the welcoming committee. I just thought me and my friends would be a more pleasant alternative to the happy twins." He said. A smile spread slowly across my face as he kept rambling on.

"I'd love to." I said, placing my hand on his. He held it in his own and we smiled at each other. We both stood up at the same time.

"Cool! So, I guess we probably should be heading back to the dorms." He said motioning to the exit.

"But, we haven't paid yet!" I protested, refusing to dine and dash.

"Keji can just take it out of my next paycheck." He said, pulling me towards the door by my hand. My stomach tightened into knots. I had never dined and dashed before in my life and I felt horrible about it, but Reid did have a point. So I swallowed my instinct and followed him out to his black jeep. I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up. Normally, I didn't, but Reid had shown me exactly why people had invented seatbelts.

"Nice car by the way." I said, gripping the seat. Reid chuckled and quickly slammed on the breaks.

"The car's not mine, it's my friend Tyler's." He said, glancing over at me quickly. "I'm just borrowing it. Your car's pretty sweet too. I definitely like the color choice, it seems very… you." I slightly blushed, and then we sped off as soon as the light turned green.

"Thanks." I muttered. We didn't say much besides that until we arrived back at Spencer Academy. The chilly air almost hurt my lungs as I took a deep breath in.

"Do you want me to walk you back to your dorm?" He asked, his hands safely warmed in his pockets.

"No…" I said, not thinking, more of a knee jerk reaction. Then he started walking away. I panicked and quickly grabbed his hand like before in the restaurant, except it was somehow different this time. "But!" I said trying to buy some time to think of some clever thing to say. "If you want to… I mean, if you think you should… You can." I told him, releasing his hand. A smile spread across his face. This smile was more genuine than his 'bad boy' smile.

"Sure." He said, turning around and grabbing my hand for once instead of me taking his. I was sure that if it hadn't been freezing cold out and my cheeks weren't pink already that they would have turned at least pink or even red.

"I love snow…" I whispered to myself, trying to break the slightly awkward silence between us. I glanced at the moonlight sparkling on the snow covering the branches on the trees. Suddenly, I felt a stabbing pain just like before. It wasn't as strong as it had been in the bar, but it was definitely enough to rip my attention away from the snow covered trees. I sucked in a quick breath and squeezed my eyes shut. "Shit!" I muttered, trying to keep myself from grabbing my shoulder. The pain slowly but surely faded, just like before and when I opened my eyes I saw millions of tiny snowflakes falling to the ground. "Woah…" I whispered, totally blown away by the sheer beauty of the scene unfolding around me. We continued walking to my dorm, but I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing.

"We're here." Reid said, squeezing my hand gently. I now noticed we were standing right in front of my dorm's door. That's when I realized I didn't want him to go quite yet.

"Well… I guess this is goodnight then." I said, trying to hide my sorrow.

"Yep…" He said very matter of factly, then pulled me into a tight embrace. "Sweet dreams." He said quietly.

"Thanks." I said, pulling out of the hug, but not really wanting to. I walked to my door, turned my head and smiled back at him. With one quick motion I had my key out of my pocket and into the keyhole on my door knob. I hesitated for a second before turning the key, but I realized that I had nothing left to say, so I opened the door and walked inside. Before I shut the door I waved and whispered "Goodbye".


	5. Home Before Dark

A/N: Two in one night! Yeah, I've actually got quite at least one more where these came from... I'm sorry?

As soon as I heard his footsteps walking away, I whipped out my phone and hit speed dial #2. One ring. Two rings. –click-.

"Hello?" A smile of relief spread across my face.

"Hey Mer" I said.

"Abbs! How's Ipswich?" She asked.

"It's alright… But we don't have time meagre chit-chat!" I said, urgency ringing from every tone. "Tomorrow I'm going to need your help."

"Alrighty! Calm down, what do you need? Furniture, a toothbrush…" There was a moment of silence for what I could only guess was her doing a quickly check of the room for her parents. "Condoms?" I was shocked at this last question.

"Well," I said, shaking the shock I had just felt a moment before, "no to the first two, and are you out of your mind of course not to the last one. We need to pick me out a dress." I said "And a nice one too not the slightly skanky kind I wore before." I added.

"Ooo! Abbs, you sly dog! You've only been there two days and you've already got boys chasing after you. What's Chase going to think?" She said.

"Oh… Yeah… Chase. I forgot to tell you this Mer. Chase and I broke up right before finals…" I said. I could feel hot tears rolling down my cheeks and my throat choking on sobs.

"Oh… Oh my gosh Abbs! I'm so sorry hon, what happened?" Mary cooed trying to comfort me.

"He was cheating on me, he said it was because I was too busy for him anymore! But I was just studying for finals and I had dive practice, and I-I-I don't know Mer, I just don't know…" I blubbered, sobs now racking my body.

"Sh…" I heard her whisper over the phone. "Calm down hun." Slowly the sobbing desisted.

"I'm sorry, it's just…" I said trying to find words to explain everything, but there just wasn't enough words in the English language to explain how insanely hurt I had been that day. It was like he never even cared about me at all and we had been going out for about for three months. He brutally ripped my heart out and did a metaphoric Mexican hat dance on it.

"It's okay. I understand." She told me, and even though we were only talking over the phone I could almost feel her hugging me. "So, what time are you gonna show up tomorrow?" She asked. A smile spread across my face.

"Be awake by noon…" I said before turning off my phone and going to sleep.

I woke up Saturday at around 10:00, still a little groggy, but pulled myself out of it, and got ready for the day. I pulled on my favourite pair of jeans, my tank top that Mary got me for my birthday this past year. I quickly brushed my hair back into its normal. I grabbed my keys out of my jacket pocket and stepped out of the door. All of a sudden a cold breeze swept towards me through an open window. I did a quick 180 and went back through the still closing door. I grabbed a jacket, and as I headed back out the door, I slipped my arms into the sleeves of the jacket. All of a sudden, I slammed into something solid. I looked up, away from my jacket covered arm. I saw a familiar face that brought a smile to mine.

"Reid, what on earth-" I started.

"I figured you'd be getting your dress today, since winter formal is tomorrow, so I came to see if you needed a bag boy." He said, but I didn't feel like he was doing this of his own free will.

"Really now?" I said, cocking my head slightly. "Well alright then." I said, smirking. I was going to enjoy today very much.

~Reid's POV~

I hated Caleb.

"You need to keep an eye on her!" He was shouting at me.

"I just don't understand why it had to be ME!" I shouted, standing up from my seat in the circle.

"It's because you're the only one of us she knows enough to trust." Pouge said, trying to calm me down.

"But I already did my part! I invited her to formal with us, what more do you want?" I asked, just about ready to slam them all with power balls.

"You need to just keep an eye on her until she ascends." Caleb said acting like it was the easiest thing in the world to do.

"Or whatever she does…" Tyler said, and both Caleb and Pogue glared at him. "What? I'm just saying we have no idea what will happen to her once she turns eighteen, no Williams girl has lived long enough." This made my stomach churn. The thought of Abigail only having until her next birthday or before to live just didn't sit right with me.

"That's precisely why we need someone watching her." Caleb said, acting like what Tyler said meant nothing to him at all, which oddly pissed me off a great deal.

"Fine," I said after a few moments of silent brooding. "But I'm not gonna be her lap dog. I have a reputation to uphold!"

And now I was trailing behind Abby just like the little lap dog I swore not to be.

"So where are we headed?" I asked, deciding to spark up a conversation rather than go through the entire trip in awkward silence.

"To Salem, I'm picking up one of my friends and then we'll head out for whatever stores we feel like." She said, clicking the unlock button on her car remote. I saw the headlights flash on her green car, but the trunk also popped open.

"Damn it! Not again!" She said, as though this was a common occurrence and walking around to the back of her car. Then I saw something that she obviously didn't. A black car was heading towards her, going faster than they should have been.

"Abby! I shouted, running towards her. I quickly shoved her into the trunk. I turned to see the car just about ready to hit me, and I made a split second decision. I used. I leapt over the car and landed in a crouched position at the other end. I heard Abby let out a shriek right before I landed, obviously thinking I had been hit by the same car that tried to run her over. Once the noise of the motor faded, I heard sobs coming out of the trunk. I walked forward to see her shaking in the trunk of her car. I put my hand on her shoulder, and her head shot up, and she just sat there staring at me for a moment, opening and closing her mouth as though she was trying to say something but couldn't find the words. As I looked closer, I saw two tears dripping down her cheeks. Finally words managed to escape her trembling lips.

"I-I thought you'd…" She stopped, as though she couldn't bare to put into words what she had been thinking. I now knew why she had been shaking . It wasn't because of the cold weather or that she had been crying. She had been terrified for my safety. Gently, I picked her up out of the trunk and set her on her feet.


End file.
